Welcome to Get a Grip with Shane bag at a production of iHeartRadio. Hey everybody, welcome to the Get a Graphic Podcast. Hope you guys are having a great week. It's matchplay week. My Unfortunately, my Arizona Wildcats the two seed I forgot to show up against Princeton. I'm maybe Princeton's good. One of my buddies in Vegas bet them to make the final four. I think after game number two and the number was still crazy high, but Arizona balanced again early. I'm starting to think the Arizona Wildcats are the Texas Longhorns of college basketball to the Longhorns college football. I remember I was texting buddy of mine that that broadcast college football a few months ago, asking if the Longhorns are the most overrated team and all of sports, and he said, maybe the two most overrated teams and all of sports are both football teams from Texas. Don't yell at me, Dallas Cowboy fans, just look at the numbers. I'm an Arizona Wildcat at heart and diploma wise, and unfortunately they continue to fall short in the tournament. But my focus obviously went from the basketball tournament to the match play this week, and this is one of my favorite events. I covered this multiple years for PGA Tour Live back of the day when they would send us on site for these events. I would go to Austin, you know, my family would come down. Always one of my favorite weeks, and it was always one of my favorite tournaments. And I'm just so shocked that in a time where our attention spans are as short as ever, the match play doesn't work. Is so strange to me. And I know the round robin format change and I understand the reasoning behind it, but I always felt like Wednesdays and thursdays of the match play, the old formatted match play where some of the most exciting in our sport because you could get bounced from anybody by anybody. Nick Oheern could beat the best player in the world, and that person has gone from the tournament, and I just felt like the finality of it and that excitement, it really brought something unique to the tournament. And I'm bummed that it's going to go away, and I'll be very interested to see what happens in terms of match play tournaments going forward. But we'll always have the Wryder Cup will always have the Presidents Coup, will always have the Soulhan Cup. You know, We'll always have the USA Amate, even with the format changing with the Usameter, And now I'm qualifying to get into my first ever Usameter. Is getting harder by the day. But that conversation is for another day before we get to Andy Johnson and what I would call a very interesting conversation about the best flushers in golf the last twenty three years. I wanted to let you know I teamed up with Goodwalk Coffee. If you haven't checked out Goodwalk Coffee, if you haven't had Goodwalk Coffee yet, change that It is excellent. It is a coffee company that is obsessed with golf and is focused in and around golf, and is trying to get into as many resorts and team up with as many golf people as possible. And the beans are great and the coffee's awesome. And I'm not just saying that because I teamed up with them. I'm saying that because people routinely text me that have tasted this and said this stuff is awesome. So we have a bacon breakfast blend now with Goodwalk Coffee. If you go to Goodwalk Coffee dot com bat slash Bacon. You can go right there and check out what we did. It's the Bacon Breakfast Blend. It is really good. I'm a colbrew guy, so I have like my Toddy colebrew system that I make about, you know, twice a week, and this is great for that. It's great whole being, it's great ground. I think you're going to really enjoy it. But if you buy some of this, it supports me directly. It supports what we do here at the podcast and other collaborative efforts that we have going forward. So Goodwalk Coffee dot com bat slash Bake and give it, give it a try. You can subscribe to it if you like it, and it'll just routinely come. You don't have to worry about, you know, continuing to buy it. But I think you'll like it. And if you're a fan writer review, we really appreciate that. And last thing before you get to Andy. And speaking of Andy, I've been writing for The Friday Egg and for their newsletter. I have a piece every Friday where I focus on one word and then kind of expand into you know, an article or a column or however you want to call it. But I've also been writing a little deeper pieces, a little bit what I used to do, and I've really enjoyed it. I missed writing. It's weird, I'll say the golfer Zoo. I'll give a shout out to the children's book I wrote. Is getting me back into the writing world. But I spent the weekend watching not just March Madness and not just the PGA Tour event last week, but also I watched a lot of the live event and Tucson, and I wrote what I thought was a relatively objective piece about the good and the bad of the broadcast and the viewing experience of live golf. And there is good and there is bad. And so if you want to check that out, go to the fridaygg dot com and the article's right there. And yeah, if you had feedback on it, you can always send me a DM on Instagram at Shane Bacon, or you can just yell at me on Twitter. That's what most people do anyway these days, especially, but I just wanted to let you know that that's where my writing takes place. Make sure you sign up for that Frida Egg newsletter so you can see my pieces routinely in there, and everybody else's pieces for goodness sakes, I mean, it's not just me, it's it's Meg and Brendan and Andy and Will and Garrett and the whole crew that does a great job there. And I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple of names, so apologies there, but enough for me. Let's get to the all flusher's tea with mister Ady Johnson. All right, here is that's Andy Johnson. We're in a ground under repair hat. I appreciate the attention to detail. I wouldn't say you're You're really big on attention to detail in that regard, so thanks for paying attention. Well, you know, Shane, I uh, I looked at the hat the hat drawer. I get up a really early West Coast time. I try and be as quietly as quiet as possible, not wake up any of the the people in my household. But I was. I was sifting through my hat bin this morning and thought it would be a nice touch because I definitely couldn't take a shower and do my hair properly this morning. How many hats are in your hat bed? I got a lot of hat questions myself. What is your ben like, is it a hundred hats or is it like thirty? I don't know what the official number is. There's a whole box that's in the attic right now. My wife has put like a like a referendum on the hats. It's like I cannot it's a one in, one out policy. Really it's right now. She doesn't know there's a whole box in the attic. I kind of control the attic. That's my domain up there. She has no clue that there's like an entire big box full of hats. So I mean, I have to say this in the hundreds. It's the thing that I find myself buying the most. It's just like I think, like one of the things I obviously a travel TONU. I get around to a lot of places. And you know, the other thing I've found is I've enjoyed buying like non golf hats in recent years because I have so many golf hats. But the thing about it is like, if you have a bunch of hats, they don't wear out. And that's the nice thing about hats versus like a golf shirt. Right, if you spend the money on a golf shirt, when you go to a place and you know or nice course. The thing about it is like a year later, you're kind of like, man, it's golf shirt signs the last legs the hat if you've got a dice rotation of hats that kind of last a long time, right, totally agree with you. That was my transition. A few years back. I went vests, and I also realized that if you buy vests at a lot of courses, you're spending a gob of money. And so, yeah, you know the hat is the hat is a thirty dollar purchase and it's a thank you to the golf course. You know, you and I play a decent amount of free golf. When you play free golf, it's nice to buy something in the shop, just like it's nice to tip the outside service people. And so the hat is a good thing to do. Doesn't doesn't ruin the pocketbook, but it's something you're you can actually use. I got a chi chessis hat on right now. Andy. We're talking flushers today, and I think the reason I thought of doing this pod with you, I like having you on, and that's kind of doing these lists. You know, that's been something that's been a bit of a recurring, recurring, you know, podcast title with you and I over the last yeah, two months. I didn't put the time and energy into this one that I did the last one. The last one I felt like I spent like a full day researching. This is one I did put a lot of research into. It's just really hard. It's so this one's a little more subject It's it's way more subjective. It's way more who you think of when you think of a flusher. So I have two questions before you get to our list. Question number one, do you Andy, what is a flusher? To Andy Johnson, I think that just in general, the way I would think about a flusher is when you're watching golf in person, particularly when they when they hit a ball, there's like almost a different sound. It makes you like your neck snap or if you're like intently watching it, is like you're watching it and you're just think, Wow, that's different than other guys on tour. That's different than anybody else that I've really seen hit a golf ball. There's a distinct. I think there's a distinct, you know, just sound that a real flusher. Hass all right? And then in your brain when you think of flushing a golf ball in your brain, what club comes to mind first? Oh, that's a good question. I feel like I feel like a six iron. Yeah, I had five iron in my brain. I was thinking five iron? Would he flush it? It just comes off with a different trajectory, you know. It kind of just it gets up to that a pax a little bit quicker, right, Yeah? I um, you know, I I've told the story a decent amount, not just on this podcast, but I think win Max was a part of the podcast. But here during Covid and Max and I were playing at Popaco every Monday, and we'd have that kind of rotating fourth spot. It was me and Ashton and Max and then we had a fourth player that would join us. A decent amount. You always got that you saw the reaction. I mean, these guys were good players, and many tour players, you know, playing for a living or had played for a living in some capacity. And the first time Max would hit a four or five six iron, as Papago asks those clubs a lot on Part threes, you always saw their eyes in their ear, you know, you kind of looked over like, holy shit, that sound is different, you know. I mean you you knew instantaneously that what Max Oma was doing with a five iron was different than what you were doing with a five iron, even if you're a great ball striker. And I think what people that don't know or don't go to a lot of golf tournaments understand is there are players in professional golf that hit the ball differently than other players. And that is a fact across the board, no matter what tour you play on. Yeah, and I think I think it's important with the flushers that there is some requisite power because that's what I think kind of produces the sound, right, Like there's got to be a little bit of speed in the swing because I think there are there are different types of flushers, I guess, but in my mind, like the more impressive flusher has a there's a combination of power and just like hitting the center all the time. Yeah, my agent, Jeremy Eisenberg had I told him we were doing this, and he messaged me and he said he was out with I think it was Hankney or somebody years ago, and he said they were doing something with Nick Price, and he said Price was just dialed and he said that they were on the range and it was just you know, five yard draw, five yard fade, dead straight ball, low one, high one, kind of the nine shots that Tiger always talked about. And he said, he it's been you know, probably fifteen twenty years since that happened, and he still goes back to that moment. These things stick with you, you know, when you go to a tournament and you see a flusher hit a golf ball, it will stay with you. I mean, this is somebody not on my list, but like Mark Leishman and the way he kind of you know, kind of traps that golf ball with some of those shots he's hit in and around Augusta National. Those things stay with you, not just for four days or for that round of golf, but they'll stay with you for years on in Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. I have some guy on my list that I'll tell, you know, talk about something like that that happened. You know, I think now almost fifteen years ago that I like remember clear as day, like it happened yesterday, um where. And I think that's the cool thing about these shots and these players is that you you know, they're they have staying power because you remember those moments and obviously. I mean, like, as I started to compile this list, like there are some people that are like flushers, but like what I found was, like these are they're all like Hall of Famers on my list, and like I have some honorable mentioned guys that like aren't Hall of Famers that were flushers that are just like but it's like I just like couldn't get myself to put Chad Campbell on my ten ten lists. You're gonna be You're gonna be bummed out because he might have made my list. I think he like belongs there, but like the problem was, I don't think he did it for as long as some of these other guys. That's where I got some numbers on mister Chad Campbell. You just wait, all right, So before we get into list big Bob Allenby. I didn't expect to be like thinking about big shot Bob Allenby, guy that you know has made more waves off the course than I'm the course in recent years. But like you look at his numbers and you're like, holy shit, right Humbert and Allenby. But then I was texting with somebody who's a little bit more intimate. He goes I dock him because he only hit one shape. He was one dimension. Ah. I like that. I like that if Flusher typically can move the ball around. By the way, here's a quick quiz question for you. Is Flusher's a live team name? Do you know that or not? It's not, but it should be, you know, maybe I had to look. I had to look and see. I had to make sure that it wasn't a live a live name, just so people that we're listening to this podcast and saw the title didn't get confused. I did to give a shout out. You mentioned some people you talked with, Justin Ray, who everybody knows on Twitter, twenty first group. I asked him for a little bit of help in terms of some of these numbers, and he sent me a great spreadsheet that everybody would love to see. I'm sure, so make sure you fallow Justin and the twenty first group as well. Um, And it just reminded of everybody we're doing this from two thousand to current day to modern day. Flushers, Shot Link and strokes Gang did not start until O four, so you've kind of got that four year window where those stats are not available. Um. So if we go way back in time. Um, you're gonna hear us say oh four, at least me say oh four a lot. That's the reason some of these numbers start in O four. Andy, do you want to do honorable mention names now or at the end of the podcast? Um? Either one, either one, whatever, whatever. You're the host. Let's let's let's go right now. I'm gonna throw out some of my honorable mention names at you and you could just holler if you've got him on yours as well. Graham Violette honorable mention, Flusher, don't have him. Joe Durant Joe, Yeah, honorable mention. He is like that guy, just like I mean, I think the knock maybe on Durant is it not enough power? But like the accuracy the iron play un believable. Yeah. When Jay Ray sent me his list, Durant was top ten, like all time on that stretch that they've hit at least four hundred shots that were calculated or something. Joe Durant honorable mention. Ryan Moore on my list is an honorable mention as well. I can't get there because of the power power requisite. Okay, Knox and well, I think is you don't want to make it. But yeah, he didn't make my honorable mention obviously. I think like Ryan Moore played his best golf at age like twenty one. Absolutely, I don't think there's any I don't think there's any question. That's the other tough thing it's like to be on this list for me. You had to do it for a while. Yeah, I understand that Harris English made my list as well as a flusher. Um on hell Cabrera was an honorable mention for me. I don't feel like we mentioned his name that much anymore for obvious reasons. And then I had Speeth as an honorable mention to not make my top ten. But I think people sleep a bit on speech. Iron play is in terms of a flusher, especially in his prime, and I obviously talk about his prime like twenty fourteen, fifteen sixteen, but you know, he was one of the best ball strikers in the world over that course that time. Can I throw you if you here? Yeah? Scott vert Plank, Oh god, Scott vort Plank is an absolute flusher. Well, he didn't have the power though, that that's the thing. But if you look at its iron his iron play from like basically when they started, Strokes gained till like two thousand and ten. He's just top ten approach every year, like Top twenty Strokes gained Tea Green as a horrible chipper. He was a bad chipper and he's like Top twenty Strokes gayed t De Green every time. Like I almost put for Plank on this list. I've got Zelle Tours and brecaw on here just like haven't seen enough, not enough evidence, you know, too early in their career to put them on this list. I have them there. I think like DJ is a is a you know, I put him as a like the weird thing with the flusher t is like you kind of have like the off the tea guys and the and the approach guys, and I kind of tried to put I try I put more emphasis on the approach. When I think flusher, I think iron play more so than I think like out of this world driver of the golf ball, and DJ, I think like always was like his iron play got really good for a couple of years, but it was always kind of lagging behind the driver. Right. Totally agree with you on that. By the way, the plank line for Plank only player in Master's history to Bertie twelve all four days in a Master's tournament. And so if you want to talk about flushers, obviously could hit the irons close. And I totally agree with you, Andy. I That's why I asked the question about the iron or what club comes to mind when you think about flushers, because to me, it's it's that middling or long iron that really pops in my head more than a driver. Even though on my list some great drivers made the list. Who else do you have? Roundable mentioned Keegan Bradley. I almost put him on my list too. He almost has made more audible mention. Guy is a menace, unbelievable. I mean the anchor band with the belly putter like was made specifically to like end his professional golf career. And I mean like there were there were five years where he was like just like categorically an awful putter, but still remade on the PGA Tour because how good of a boss riker he is. Lucas Glover is not that in that in that same vein, can I ask you a question, are there more Are there are two golfers that you feel the same about more? Than Lucas Glover and Kegan. I just feel like they're almost the same type of player, like not great putters in any and nobody's ever gonna say they're a great putter. Always struggled around the greens, could absolutely flush the hell out of the golf ball, and they kind of rode flush into a major win. Well, I think yeah. And I think the other thing about him is like just like how long they've been relevant, right, it's the other aspect of them, like well, having like a very very clear deficiency. I'm like surprised Lucas Glover hasn't gone to the armlock putter or has he tried it? He had to have, right, did you hey, did you see the one this year where he bare like he barely took it back and hit it. I don't think I've ever seen that stroke professionally before. I've seen some goofy pro strokes, but the like inch back and go and he made it. Did you see this Saltouras stroke yesterday? Oh god it I can't watch it, dude. Like I struggle with like starting online, not not with my stroke loopy, but you know, when I start getting shaky with the putter, it's getting it online to start. I can't watch Salators put and again, I know it's overblown, and I know he gets frustrated and people talk about I don't know that that last the one yesterday was like in a whole new category of his of his putts because of the velocity. I mean, he hit it like thing was like if it didn't hit the cup the side of the cup, does it go seven feet by eight feet by on a three footer? So I've never thought of this comp until now, and I think he might be the only person in all of golf media that might understand this comp I'm obviously an Arizona Wildcat. You know what his putting stroke reminds me of his Mustafa Shakers shot. Remember Mustafa when it was the I think I called it when I was a columnist at the Woldcat. I think I called it like the Mustafa Hurricane or something. For the latter part of the three years. I mean, it would loop around and then he'd release it. And I'd never seen somebody that was very good at basketball shoot like that. And that's what I feel like when I watched Zalator's putt. You know, there are a lot of golfers. Like there's a great comparison if you wanted to do, Like a golfer to basketball player is like you just look at like the uber athletic wing basketball player that can do everything on the court except for shoot, is like the man if he could just have put, how many times would he win? Like you could like have like the Gary Woodland is Michael Kidd Gilchrist, you know, like, oh, if only that guy could shoot, Like, oh, if only that guy could put and chip, he would be he would have won twenty five times already. Um, do you have anybody else on honorable mention before we get to our first ones? Yeah? I had Jim Furick. Oh I almost had him on my honorable mention because he was so good. I couldn't get him. I like I wanted to have him in the top ten, but I kept coming back to like the guy hits it two sixty right, It's just like it's not the same feat as as the guy that swings it really fast and still flushes the shit out of it. Like to me, that's where I just couldn't get there, but like absolutely should be on it because he did it for like twenty five years. Still do whatever. Yeah, I mean, like was never like a like he was a very good putter, he was very good around the great he was obviously like great at everything. He's an all time great player, maybe the most underrated great player of his era. Like he kind of is like the Tim Duncan of his era, not like that great, but like in the same class because like nothing he did was flashy, but he was just like so good and like every single major he was always contending, but like he just gets overshadowed, like people like Davis Love more than him, because Davis Love hit it three fifteen with a persimmon driver, right. But like, give me Jim Furick all day. I'm sorry, but you know we talk about moments, and I know you have a few of these on your list as we go through some of these players. But I can never forget the tea shot on sixteen Olympic. I just it will forever be in my head. The USGA moved the teas around and Jim Furick had absolutely no idea what to do. They flummixed them. That thing was fifty yards in the trees with a hybrid. It was so wild to see. It's It's absolutely the case for moving teas during tournaments. Yes, I know that there's like logistical things with like having to set up stands and different things that make it hard and signage. But like these guys, it would be they would play so many more practice rounds if you move teas around, right, right, Like why don't we use four different teas for four different days? I know, I said logistical challenges of it, why not? Like how hard is it to move a rope at the end of the day to a different spot? I was thinking about the rope. I know this is a little bit off topic, handy. I was thinking about the rope the other day. You know, I'm always amazed that at an airport, you know, people just kind of generally follow these rules that nobody follows away from an airport, and I was thinking the golf rope might be like the last standing rule we follow as society. Like nobody goes under it, nobody breaks protocol, everybody stays behind it, and it's just this piece of twine that somebody, you know, objectively puts up in a random place with steaks, and nobody nobody breaks that rule. Nobody's just been like screw it, I'm just gonna walk around like everybody abides by the rope. It's kind of wild. I'm gonna I'm gonna counter your statement with with the twenty twenty one PGA Championship when when the rope, when the rope failed, they always win. The rope doesn't always win, do you On the other side of the rope and turning around and seeing like the Game of Throne, a Game of Thrones war, seeing rushing it down, you feel like Simba and Lion King where you're like, oh my god, they're coming, They're coming. Well, I had this like there's an overbearing security guy that was really concerned with where me and Ryan Labner were with the rope line the whole day. He was just giving us a hard time. And seeing that guy, you know, see this horde of people come rushing through and that guy, you know, all these people are rushing through, and he took took Ryan Labner and moved him back to the rope line. In the moment, it was incredible. I'll never like we're about to talk about movis, We'll never forget. I'll never forget that moment. Oh man, Hey, everybody, the volunteers at the golf tournament, just take it down one notch. That's all we're asking. One notch would be helpful. Are great, That's what I'm saying. I'm not saying everybody. I'm saying some people take it down a notch. I'll start here with our top ten list of flushers from two thousand to twenty three. And this is a modern player. I didn't think he was gonna make the list, but I did some diving and he is Scottie Scheffler, number ten on my list. Man this from Justin Ray. He said, one of my favorite notes from Scottie's win just recently at the Players PGA Tour wins by five strokes or more, leading the field in driving distance and greens in regulation. Ninety seven, Tiger at Augusta two thousand, Tiger at Pebble two thousand and seven, Tiger at the WGC, twenty seventeen, DJ at riv and twenty twenty three, Scottie Scheffler at the Players and real quick, Andy, before I hear you rebuttle, because it doesn't seem like he loved Scheffler making this list. He came out on tour. So going back to twenty nineteen, Stros gained Tita Green seventh in nineteen ten and two thousan twenty twenty, first in two twenty one, fourth in two thousand and twenty two, and leads the tour in two thousand and twenty three. It's a small sample size, but that is very, very impressive for young player. What are your thoughts on Scheffler being number ten? Listen, I fully imagine in five years he'd be on my list. I just don't think there's there's enough body of work like him and John Ron would fall in the same bucket for me. They both are. I would just say pseudo honorable mentions, just not enough evidence for me to put him in there yet. I was trying to include at least one or two very modern players on the list because I think, for you and I, when we think of this, we almost always go back in time before we think forward. I mean, it's so much easier for me to think of a two thousand two player, or a two thousand and five player, or somebody in two thousand and ten. And I was trying hard to not leave off the list at least couple of modern players. So that's why I wanted to show Scottie there at ten number number ten, for me is a modern player. I got Hideki Matsuyama. I mean when when Hideki's cooking, it is like a site to behold, and I think he falls in that like that all like he's almost like Andre Igodala, where like, okay, his putter can get hot, like Igodala can make a jumper. But if he just was like an above average putter, we'd be talking about, like, you know, one of the best players of a generation. I think Dari is like like in that fringe generational player type talk. Um. So Hideki for me, you know, when you see him get going the iron play is just like at a whole different level than a lot of guys. Like you know, we saw it at the Master's he won obviously on Saturday with that back nine where you know, like seemingly he was hitting every shot to three feet. Um. You know that for me, like when he gets hot with his with his irons, and I mean they're there all the time, it kind of keeps him. You know, he's such a steady player because of how good he hits the ball. Um, it's a combination of accuracy, like he's long and accurate off the tea, which I always think is like kind of a flusher. A sign of a flusher is long and accurate, um, not just long and all over the place. So Hideki is number ten to me. I don't have the stats, but you have, but that's my general thought. So I would say, if you were going to ask me to really kind of close my eyes and think about what performance is the most flushy performance of the last twenty some years. I think it was the post weather delay third round at Augusta. I mean, you know, yeah, that's not it's not online anymore because you know, the every show goes away after a year. But I would urge or beg Augusta National to put that display on YouTube at some point because obviously it's just the final rounds that make it. His his shots from eleven on when he was right on eleven. I've watched that so many times that that full year of it being online. I went back and watched that shot and the one in the thirteen when he remember he three putts at thirteen after hitting right over the top of the flag, and that that's like the Hedecki experience exactly exactly. He gets four feet away and you're like, is this going to hit the hole speaking of a DECKI it's speaking of match play week. Did you see the thing yesterday with the quarter on the putter when he was practicing? H oh, guy, I'll send it. I'll send it to you. Had had a quarter placed on the toe of the putter when he was practicing putting. No, I do what that does. But you know whatever, Maybe it's something with like tempo or something. I guess. I guess I love Hedeki there. I think that's a smart pick my number nine. And I'm assuming he's gonna be on your list, and I would bet he's probably a little higher on your list. The reason he's not higher on my list simply what you said earlier. This is a little bit more about iron play and a little bit less about mashing the drives and being such a great driver. Number nine for me is Rory McElroy. He's on my list, he's on your list. Okay. Over the last decade, Rory. This is from Justin Ray. Rory is a foot better than any player on average from outside of two hundred yards. So when you do best average proximity in the last ten seasons from outside two hundred yards, Rory is forty five feet seven inches Rom second forty six seven. But just to understand how incredible it is to be a footbetter Rom's forty six seven, and then it's forty six seven is Paul Casey forty six eight is de Lette? Like those people are all bunched relatively together, and Rory is a huge gap difference in terms of those numbers. So Rory nine on my list. Listen, you can't have a list like this and not talk about Rory McElroy. I think he's always going to be known as a generational driver of the golf ball. But we probably sleep a little too much on the iron play, so I real quick, I think Paul Casey probably deserved to be an honorable mention, but I just I just don't really like the guys, so I left him off, Okay, But be with Rory, I think like you could make a real argument that if golf courses were eighty five hundred yards, he would be way higher up in strokes gained approach. It's just that he like very rarely hits Eddie mid irons rightly. He plays so well at bay Hill because bay Hill he hits long irons like right And that's that's why like it's like, you know, it's like the same thing with Tiger Is, like you know, Firestone used to be a long golf course. It's it's kind of got dwarfed in recent years. But you know when you put like that narrow, rough, long golf course out there, like Tiger Woods, Rory McElroy are going to play well because they're hitting like mid irons, long irons. In particular at bay Hill, it's the part three's in the par fives and that's where he really separates himself. And like what we talked about early on, Flusher's like, it's not just the prolific driving is impressive because of the distance he hits it and the act or the relative accuracy he hits it given how far he hits it right. Rory is the career leader in stroskined off the tea per round since tracking started, um nearly a shot per round stroskained off the tea for Rory McElroy. Hey, when you think of Rory, because he's got such an accomplished career. But I was thinking about this last out as I was working a bit on this list, what's the shot that comes to mind when you think about Rory? Because I feel like for Tiger, you could think about Canada, you could think about the chip in it Augusta. You know, there's there's there's so many of these moment golf shots. What is that shot? Because you know, two of the four majors that Rory won he won by eight, it's hard to kind of think about a singular shot he hit at Congo, you know, or Kiawa. But is there a shot that comes to mind when you think about Rory's career? It's actually it was it that what do he hit like a three wood at the Honda to win that one year he didn't win, right? He missed the park the playoff? Yeah, yeah, maybe I think that was Henley. So that shot I think about probably is the first one is like that that fairway wood from the what about you? You know, I was thinking about this because I was thinking about, like, I haven't I didn't think fairway woods are are a good thay. There's one in Europe too. I can't remember what tournament that I think about a lot too where he hit the three wood to like in I think it was the Irish Open and I think that was when he hit two fairwoods on the fairy woods. On the back on both those part fives, and he hit him both really close. Um. I was thinking about this, you know, when he won the Open. If you remember, I think he had maybe a two shot lead going into the last hole and it was a part five, right, and he hit like a two or three iron into that green and he didn't hit the green. But I just remember thinking when he had that club in his hand, this is so unnecessary that your level of confidence has to be so high to know that with there was out of bounce, you know, ten yards off green, as there isn't so many of these, you know, open road of golf courses to hit that club knowing that if you hit a not even a big miss, but even a mediocre swing or a mediocre miss, you could be hitting that out of bounds and potentially lose the Open. I always go back to that as kind of peak Rory confidence. But I'm with you. I think the hand to three would even though he didn't go on to win. That kind of bullety cut, you know, onto that tucked hole was just so wild and in kind of to your point about Hideki, a bit of the ry experiences of course, miss missing missing the eagle put there, um, you know, like would you ask the question about flushing like the flusher like I do think like three woods are are? I like thought about answering three woods like what shot? Because like that towering A lot of people will hit like skanky three woods that are kind of like they work, they go. But when you hit that like towering three wood off the ground from the faraway tight like that, that's a flusher shot, you know, and that that brings me right into number nine on my list. Justin Thomas. Oh, he's on my list, but he's he's he's well into the list. JT in the three wood is a great marriage. Can I say something about the three wood before you get into JT? Yeah? You know, I try to play pro golf in a very small capacity. Years ago I'd seen great players up close when I was the on course reporter at the match. And you probably know the hole at Shadow Creek. I'm not exactly sure. I think it was fifteen or sixteen to part five, but Phil and Tiger were around three hundred yards each out into that part five in the match, and they both hit three woods and they were exactly what you're talking about, Andy. They were the way up in the sky, absolutely picked off the grass, no divot, and I remember watching those shots thinking to myself, holy shit, what was I doing trying to play pro golf, Like this is such a different experience see it. And these are obviously, you know, two generational golfers, two of the best of all time. But to see those up close, you know, in a in a in a competitive environment, was wild. But JT is just you know, does it all with all those clubs? Yeah, all all the shots, great irons and obviously, like you talk about iconic shots like that, Aaron Hills three wood is one of the greatest shots in golf history. I think like that, that was unbelievable. I will say it, like all your easiest. Number nine on my list is like time, you know, he'll he'll move up the more he does it. One thing that hasn't been talked about this year that I brought up on intro to my most recent pot on the Fried Egg is like, just nobody's talking about JT this year. It's just like it's not good. The stats are not good, like career worst stats. And obviously it's still pretty early in the year, but it's kind of alarming. He's like he's hitting the driver nowhere. This year he's he's down thirteen or fourteen yards from last year on his driver. And he started to look at his strokes gain ranks. He's he's fifty third and approach and thirty ninth and off the tea and those are you like he's usually you know, twentieth or so off the tea, top ten in approach. It's it's kind of been like a I don't know what's going on. Obviously obviously he kind of got off to a slower start last year too, but you know, I'm sure it's gonna to normalize something. But something, something's not right with JT. I noticed it when I watched him Tiger and Rory at riv was like he was like thirty yards behind those guys all day, and I kind of like, what what is going on? Like yeah, yeah, it's it's very intro It's funny because I have JT on my list and I was looking at his stats as well, and this year is like the one you throw out, you know, because I mean, every other year is relatively consistent, and he's had up and down years, but this is, you know, this is not good. So hopefully JT finds something. I think what you're hearing from Andy is don't pick JT at Augusta sounds sounds to me it's hard to not have him on. Like I did a top ten list for an intro dar with my most recent pod. It's like hard not to put him on your top ten because of like what you know he has. But like when you look at the the year to date, it's like, you know, like usually when you think JT outlier year, I think about was it twenty sixteen when he made everything? He was like a top thirty putter. Is the one year that he putted really great and he won so much? Yea yeah, And that to me is usually the outlier year. And every year you could always count on great driving, great approach, and then this year it's it's just like I don't know what's going on, but there's something something up. Hopefully he gets it straightened out, because like I think of all the modern players, if you were gonna if we did like a um A like PGA Tour live like or like in person, who you want to see in person? Like JT I think is the most entertaining to watch. I mean, he's top person Yeah, it's it's it's him. It's him for kind of what we're talking about, flushing the golf ball and being able to flush it in a lot of different ways. It's Rory for power and it's Jordan's speed because you know, it's like, you know, it's like going out in Vegas for like three nights in a row. My number eight is a name you mentioned, Andy mister, and as is Ay Johnson's favorite golfer of all time. He has a jersey hanging up behind him. If you're not watching this in any way, Paul Casey number eight. Jay Ray stat ranked inside the top ten and average proximity from outside two hundred yards four times in the last ten years. Listen, eight straight seasons ranked in the top fifteen on tour in stross gained approach each of the last eight years. He was qualified the Streak Only staff because he went to Live. I don't know if they have stats that live. That is insane ball striking. If you're eight straight years inside the top fifteen, dude, that's not one year where you're twenty fourth or twenty eight. And when you go through these numbers on some of these players that we have talked about and that we will talk about. They have twenty of seasons where they're twenty second and twenty fourth and thirty first in some of these categories. Paul Casey certified flusher. I I totally am on board with this. I just decided to just leave him off for personal reasons. I listen, you know, it's your list. It's your list, and uh, I mean the thing about it is like ultimate Paul Casey is like the ultimate high floor golfer. He was like just a perfect pick for major pools, like when he was playing majors, because like he just knew he was making the cut, like I think he had. He had some crazy record at Augusta, um, you know, which is obviously like an iron play, like you know, if you're a great iron player, gonna play well at Augusta. And I can't remember what it was, but you know he was. He had like so many top six, top eight finishes at Augusta in a number of years. He definitely belongs on this list. I got number eight. This is uh, this is probably a sentimental pick. Here here we go. Probably my favorite favorite player non Tiger of the yeah Tiger generation, Ernie els Coming. I knew it was coming on my list as well on my list as well. I mean, what do you think about just like a surreal player, to watch the tempo, the effortless power, Um, Ernie Els is right there one obviously one majors from ninety four to twenty twelve. That's uh, that's unbelievable. And uh he was really close to winning a lot of majors. Yeah, I mean it's it's so wild to look at what he did. Um, Like you said, longevity wise, and I have already later, but considering he's, you know, your favorite golfer, Is he your favorite golfer? Ever? Um, I don't know. I like runic for him. I think one of the things that I you know, he was like this gentle giant, he was likable, um, and then he was always going up against Tiger, and he kind of just like you've built this like sympathy for the guy that kept finishing second, right, you know. I think that's like a lot of why I like Ernie so much is that he just like he just you just like eventually like felt really bad for him because of like, you know what what continually happened to with Tiger. You know, Yeah, I mean it was Jim Kelly. I mean it's like you, you know, you make four Super Bowls in a row and you don't win any of them, and it's like your team was incredible. It's just you weren't able to get quite over that hump. It's not to say you had a bad career, you had a bad stretch. I would say, tell me if you agree with this, I'd say his peak was two thousand to oz four for Ernie. Is that fair to say? Yeah, It's it's hard. I you know, like the thing I always talk about is like the guy won two majors with wound golf balls. Yep. And obviously his best year was two thousand and three when the pro v one X came out, like all of a sudden, he could just nuke a knuckle cut yep. You know. So I think he had kind of a couple of different eras of greatness. But you know, it's hard to look past, like winning in ninety four at oak Or was that I think? Yeah, that was an Oakmont in ninety four at age you know, at the time, you know, winning a major, winning a US Open at age twenty four was not you know, you didn't win at twenty. You didn't win a major four twenties, right, So I said two thousand to oh four, Andy, Okay. So over that stretch he played at ninety PGA Tour events, he had eight wins, eight seconds. He had five seconds in two thousand, by the way, forty three top tens. So he basically for a five year stretch, finished in the top ten half the time. And I also want to add something to that, that's really a top nine because Tiger was finishing in the top ten every week anyway, so there were only nine spots available for a top ten. So he was finishing in the top nine half the time. And then an O four when shot link was introduced, as I said, second at a gust to t ninth at the US Open, second alone at the Open, t fourth at the PGA. And how about this stross game, Tita Green, third, and oh four fifth, and oh five eighth, and oh six second, and oh seven seventh, and oh eight fourth and oh nine ninth in two thousand and ten. That is such a long stretch to finish in the top nine and those categories. Ernie, he's fourth on my list, by the way, and he is to me. You said the fairy wood thing andy about flushing the golf ball, And I would say that when I think about stinging the golf ball, and stinging the golf ball such a flusher move. You know, if you can, you can kind of keep those hands quiet and keep that face, you know, relatively solid through impact and keep the ball. Oh, Tiger's the greatest stinger of all time. Ernie to me a second, and you know, I didn't grow up watching Sevy. I wasn't old enough to watch Sevy. I didn't watch Tom Watson and Jack and those types of players. But Ernie could hit that stinging three wood. He could take speed off of golf clubs and hit shots like that. And so to me, Ernie is like what this list is in terms of what we're talking about. Yeah, hey, listen, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna argue with any of that now. I feel I feel bad that I put him so low. Um number seven for me, Henrick Stinson, Henrik Stintson, make your list. I have him exact same spot. No way, both have him at seven. There you go, Yeah, yeah it's number seven. Um good, We're gonna get to the overlap section. So that's exactly right, Um, I mean he led he led strokes Gate approach multiple years. Yeah, I think that's like the only the thing that you have to and obviously, like I think it's stross gained numbers would have been even better if the guy would hit a fricking driver, it's a great point three would off every tea. I mean you know he he would rarely pull that out. You think he had the driver yips? I? Oh, absolutely, I think he was. I think he was frightened by the driver and I think he knew he could squeeze the three. Would I mean you know, would he be a flusher and have the driver yips? That's the that's the case for him not being on here. It's like he's like terrified of hitting a driver. We have him seventh in the in twenty three years of golf. So obviously you and I say the answer is yes, you can be andy. He was forty two and forty three years old when he led the PGA Tour and stros gained approach. That's wild to think about, especially now that wasn't that long ago. No, No, he's another He's like in that Hideki camp like where he could go on runs where I think I remember, what was it the year do you win bay Hill? That one year he just hit everything close for like a number of holes in a row, and it's just like just relentless with the irons. But then when you when he's standing over a four foot or it's like, I have no clue, I have no clue what's going to happen here? And when he makes every four foot or it's what happens Roal Troon right, I mean pay probably his best golf of his career and doesn't win. In twenty eighteen, Stinson led the PGA Tour in both driving accuracy and greens regulation. He was the first player to do that since Calvin Pete did it in eighty one, eighty two, and eighty three. Shout out to my buddy Mark Freed. Uh, he's my modern day Calvin Peat. By the way, he never misses a fair way. Um, So Stinson seven for you and I number six. Andy, Here we go. It's time the Tiger Woods of the Hooters Tour. The man, the Man, Chad Campbell number six on my list. He is in front of Henry Stinson. He is in front of Rory McElroy. He is in front of Scottie Scheffler. Schad Campbell is to me what flushing the golf ball is all about. I gotta run you through a couple of stats here. This is a Shane Bacon stat is not justin race. If I got something wrong, don't yell at justin stro Skane approach in two thousand and four, eighteenth on tour OH five, t twenty eight, six thirty seven, twenty first, oh eight, fourth, nine, eleven, twenty ten, twelve, two thousand and eleven, second, two thousand and twelve, seventh, two thousand and thirteen, eighteenth, two thousand and fourteen eighth. That is a eleven straight years of being in the top thirty an approach on the PGA Tour and straight seven straight years were his worst in that department was eighteen. This guy could flush a golf ball. He could do stuff with it that some of the best players in the world wish they could do. Very underrated player and definitely an underrated ball striker. Yeah yeah, And then if you did the same for the putting stats, you'd you'd be like, That's why Chad Campbell was it he was talking about he was at the cover of SI too. Is that right? I think he was like it was um it was something about the next thing, Um, Dad Campbell, Jaad Campbell. I thought he was gonna win that PGA, next big thing. You'll never guess who the pros picks the next big thing. Chad Campbell cover of Sports Illustrated US Help in preview, I was gonna say, so it was a it was a golf It was one of the golf additions we used to do, the major ones. Those things were so cool when he used to get those. I'd get so excited when they come in the mail. It was two two thousand and three. Uh. Heading into the US Open in two thousand and three, he was on the cover of SI Golf Plus. Is that the year that mckill won? Is that the year he finished second? H three? Uh? Man, If that's a call, what a call by SI? I think mckill wash is the four? Or yeah? He was ok Hill? Which was we should I should know this, you know? Um No, it was O three. It was we We didn't know it. We just didn't think we knew it. It was OZ three when he did that. So SI writes that for the US Open, and he does that at the PGA with at the time. The PGA was the last major. So what a call by a Sports illustrated I think he played on the all time best Ryder Cup American Ryder Cup team too, the six Ryder Cup team. Is that? Who is that? Is that Vaughan? Yes, Vaughan and J J. Henry? Is that whetic? Is he on? Was he on that team? Yeah? God, I think so. Let's see I think he was on that team. Let's see Jad Campbell, Yeah, Tom Layman, Tiger Woods, Bill Mickelson, and Jim Feerick, Chad Campbell, David Thomas, all right, we're okay there. Debarco that he underted, underrated flusher. Then he'd go Von Taylor, JJ henre Zach Johnson, Brett Wederick, Stu Sink and re Plank. Maybe this team wasn't that bad. That's not a lot of putters, lots of flushers, Sink sinks. The sneaky flusher is a sneaky flusher. I mean, the part about all this that's stupid is if you're a professional golfer, you're probably in some capacity of flusher. But as we've said, there is some different sound that is made. Do you think Monty should have been considered, are we under overlooking Montias? I will say that the he did have a different sound. I know, the wing foot seven iron again, much like the Jim Feerick shot at Olympic Club is just I mean a lot of flushers don't just hit a seven iron like forty yards short of the green. So um. Again, that's one moment in a career, but it's the thing that stands out in my mind. Who's your number six? God, I kind of feel like I should get Monty on here and just boot somebody in the top six out. I mean, you can do that. My number six is Rory. So we already talked about ror. Okay, and move on all right. Number number five? Who you got a five? I got J Singh. J Singh certifiable flusher is on your loft fall also my number five? Okay. So when I talked about like a moment, I'll never forget. I was at the O eight Honda Honda Classic or O nine maybe it might have been O nine. It was eight to ten, one of the two up sunswers like old ass VJ. At this point I was standing behind a T maybe it's the eleventh tea out there, um, and I was standing there for a while, and I just watched this guy come up. You know, he has that saunter about him, right, you know, like how he just kind of strolled along the course. He just strolls up. It just gets up to the tea and just launches one. It's just that effortless power, that effortless trajectory. And obviously, you know, again like so many guys on this list, if he could put, we're maybe talking about the greatest player, you know, if he if he could put like Tiger, I think it would have been like a question of like who's the greatest? Right? Like VJ. Singh to me is you know, I probably have him too low on this list. He probably should be number two, but I have I have him at h. I guess, I man, did I just do nine? I do nine? I think would put him mantia a ton I miscounted. Okay, it's okay put numbers by him. But VJ to b is, uh is, he's just unbelievable, So that this is funny that you did nine because I did eleven, so we actually somehow equal to twenty. I had a number of This is my fault for not number I had to get Chad Campbell in there. Um, I had VJ on my list and the problem was is that my top five was so packed that I had to do tied fifth. So I had VJ at fifth, tied with another guy that I'm sure is on your list, and I'm sure you're gonna mention him. Do you have Adam Scott in there? Yeah, he's He's number three for me? Okay. Adam Scott was was tied at the VJA at five. Um, you've you kind of went in on VJ, so I'll go in on Adam. Um. I think the best way to explain the flushing of Adam Scott was in O six he was second on the PJA Tour and Strokes ganged approach. In twenty nineteen he was fourth Andy Yes, oh second nineteen fourth. That is a gap of thirteen years of dominant, high level, high level approach play. That's to me. The Adam Scott thing is if you watched him hit a ball in two thousand and four, you'd be like whoa yep. And the same thing still rings true today, Like if you watch him hit irons, if you line up all the tour pros on the range and they're hitting Irons, Adam Scott is one of the people that stands out today, and he was like, without a question, I'll never forget, you know. He obviously was, you know, and another guy on my list that's he's upper three on my list, which we're at on my list. But like the other guy, obviously like the Tiger comparisons were what kind of like it was an you know, it was an unfair burden that these guys had to bear. But the Adam Scott Tiger frame by frame is something I'll never forget. Like when they put him next to each other, they obviously both were going to butch harmon at the time, and the swings were just like basically like the exact same. I think it was Natalie Golbus who, I mean, shout out Natalie Golbus. I think it was Natalie who said that she'd never heard the tiger sound until she played with Adam Scott, like the sound that tiger hit the ball with, She'd never heard that level of compression and force. And then the first time she played golf at Adams she went, oh, okay, so somebody else can make that noise. But yeah, the comps were there. They were not fair Adam Scott. It's so interesting that Adam Scott's and I said this on Twitter earlier in the season, that I really hope Adam Scott wins one more major before his career is over. And obviously that's gonna be very hard for him to do. It's so wild that, you know, it was decision making that ended up costing him that open, and it wasn't you know, ball striking or iron player, something that wins him unopened when it sure seemed like he was gonna be a guy that had to clear a jug, you know, in the in the cabinet at some point in his career. But i mean, just again, if you were gonna pay, if you're gonna pay a thousand dollars to go watch professional golf, Adam Scott's a top five guy to go watch, you know, just to to walk with him for eighteen holes and to see how he goes about his business, because it was that, it was that dominant, it was that impressive. Already mentioned Ernie was number four on my list. We don't have to do that. Number three on my list, Andy, and I'm hoping he's on your list. I'm assuming he made it somewhere mister Sergio Garcia, do you make your list number two? Number two on your list? Sergio Garcia. I think if I close my eyes and I think a flush in the golf ball, I think I think of Sergio Andy. I think he's the guy that comes to my mind. Yeah, I again, I think they like the same thing. Like Adam Scott and Sergio's careers are so similar, intertwined, and I think the thing about him was like how many major championships kind of slipped through their hands, like you know, Sergio, I think more so than that Adam Scott, And obviously with Sergio it's it's all the shot making. You know, he's still he's one of the few players on tour that's still hitting. Yeah, I guess he's on a tour anymore. Captain of the fireballs, lets you know, that's how it cut down. Do you think he's gonna wears fireballs get up at the Masters? I don't. I don't think they can, dude, I don't think they can wear that stuff at the Masters. We'll see, But I always I've been told, or have been under the impression that they're gonna have to maybe shy away from from that gear at the majors this year. But I guess we'll I guess we'll see. I listen the fireballs red with the fireball on it. Did you see that the fireball the liquor company is auctioning off a red fireball jacket is like a giveaway around the Masters. And all I could think of was that looks like something Sergio would wear. Now, um, let's hope he doesn't go with that. I feel like Sergio always looked a lot better in the greens and the blues. Yeah, I mean the thing with Sergio's the flights, right, it's the low cuts, the low draws, the high draws, the high phades, like you know, outside of Tiger, the guy that you would routinely see hit more shots than anybody else. And just like, I mean, I'll ever forget the year that like it seemed like and this was probably like twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, he just decided that he was getting hit his driver further and he like, just like, it's just like he's a guy that like hits his driver and hits a lot of fairways and is long, but when he wants to hit it thirty yards longer, can just like he just has yardage in the tank like he is a He's just a precise tactician of a golfer. Yeah, you know that story you say about finding twenty or thirty yards. So you know, Ned Michaels, who does a lot of the broadcast stuff for the Masters in PJA Tour Live and the USGA, does a great job. You know, Ned played, He played professional golf for a a long time. And I think he was in the final round at the Singapore Open with a young Adam Scott years ago and he said that they were playing. I think Ned was leading. They played three or four holes and he said he got to a par five and Adam's caddy they hit their drivers relatively close to each other for the first four or five holes. In Nets said that Adams he heard adams caddy said, you know, hey, boss, you know you can step on this one if you want. We'll get home in two. And he said, just all of a sudden, Adam hit it forty yards past him, you know. And again rhete they'd been relatively close for the first few holes and then all of a sudden, he's just got the seventh gear that that obviously, you know, a regular ball striker doesn't have a regular tour level ball striker doesn't have. I got some numbers for Sergio. O four Sergio was first on tour and strosgained Approach second, and Strokes Gaine t to Green first and Stroskaine off the t and O five third that season Ta Green fifth and Stroskaine and OH seven seventh t to Green second and Approach and O eight second Ta Green. I mean, like I mean, numbers, you know, numbers don't always tell the story, but they can tell the story in this department, this guy and you said earlier about you know, flushers. They they can hit the ball long, and they can hit the ball straight. Sergio is that to a T Sergio could bomb it and he hit it really straight. And to me, Sergio was kind of DJ before DJ was DJ once the iconic Sergio's shot. I mean, I think you've hitting the flagstick at fifteen when when the Masters is pretty high on my list, A long iron hitting the flag at fifteen, which is like landing a ball on the hood of a car, you know, it like and it kissed the flag handy. It didn't lamb into the flag. It was like a gentle flag hit, which never happens. Yeah, I mean, like basically like his highest pressure moment. I think I think that fifteenth whole second shot has become like the momentous decision of the masters. I don't thirteen's romanticized as that, but fifteen is the shot that I think pros know they have to hit because they don't want to lay up. And like when I think of that shot from like the top of the hill, the guy I generally think about is Sergio, And I think there was like a thing about Sergio with like the kind of like that the bravado he had. You saw it come through in Ryder Cups. But you know where Tiger was like I'm hitting this fifteen feet right and I'm just gonna like make the put. Sergio was more like, I'm hitting it right at the flag because I never know when in the next put's gonna go. His fifteen footers were such a role to die that he was like, we'll see, yeah, see, we'll see. I should just probably take this on because to your point, Tiger could take that flag on if you wanted to. Yeah, he just knew that, you know, the smart play was to hit a fifteen feet right and he knew he was such a great putter. Yeah, because like in that same moment at the was it twenty nineteen Masters when he when Tiger won, we saw him hit like the exact like buy the book's perfect shot, which was, you know, twenty feet right, let the green bring him in a little bit more, and he just walked away with an easy birdie. You know, like that's the way the Tiger. Tiger recipe wasn't always that, but like the Sergio recipe was. You know, he could get hot. Like it's again like that. It's kind of when I said about Hideki, Like when that guy gets cook and it's like we like everything's right at the flag. Terrifying player to play against. The match play, and I think that's part of why he was such a good match play player, was like the iron play when you're playing Mino Imano is just frankly overwhelming and terrifying, and it makes you feel like you have to do things that you don't want to do as a player against him. Like I think that Sergio's career, if match play was the predominant method of the game of golf would have been would be so much different because of you know, just he would just wear people out from t degree. It's interesting because if you think about a lot of the names that we've said today, and a lot of these people have something very similar in common, and that's the fact that they hit the ball unbelievably well and they're not great putters. Right. There's people on their list that are good putters, But most of the things that come to mind when you think about a flusher is somebody that maybe didn't get the most out of their game, even though we're talking about Hall of Fame golfers and some of the best of the generation, and a lot of the flushers are the ones that do have really polished Ryder Cup President's Cup team records because you could put a bit more aggressive in those moments because if you missed, it was simply just the hole that you lost and you didn't have to make the three or four footer coming back. Think guys like Calling Montgomery, right, who was just so tough to play in match playing, guys like Sergio who's just relentless because they're gonna hit the ball inside of twelve feet so often that it puts so much pressure on you. If you're first to go, you know you gotta flag it, and if you're second to go, you know, if you don't hit it close, you're gonna lose the hole. The other thing is just like you know, match plays a lot of day to day variants, and when you're a flusher, there's not a lot of day to day variance because you hit it, you roll out of bed. What I used to say, I used to caddy for this guy that was like at this club, he is always a club championship contender, and he would just like he'd kind of show up to the club disheveled. And I just joke with other caddies they he's just like right out of bed. He's just flushing it like out of bed, Like you know, like to me, like all the almost all these guys out of this list, you could like you could like wake them up at five of the boarding, put a golf club in their hand, and they're hitting the right in the center of the sweet spot first swing. Like that's kind of like the premise of this. And I think one of the things I think is like when you hit the ball of this good. I think this is something that's like underrated, is that putting becomes like a weight because your expectations are different. You know. It's why you see bad putters. You know, free it up a little bit more from twelve fifteen feet because they don't feel that, you know, that internal stretch in the chest that I've got to make this putt. They can free up the stroke a bit and the moment they get in that five foot circle, the necessity to make it, the embarrassment of missing it, you know, is is ten twenty thirty times the feeling you get when you're outside that must make range. Yeah, I you know, I think the other thing one of the things do I will say this, like if you think about the best, like to be Sergio Hideki jt Urie Rory. All these guys have the list, you know what? They all also like all those guys do really, really really well. Adam Scott is in this bucket too. They're all incredible pitchers of the ball. Like, there's there's something with the hands. Be a great flusher. You gotta have the you gotta have the hands. Interesting. My number two gonna be controversial, that's fine. I had to find somebody modern to throw in here because I felt again like we're gonna be leaning heavily on old school. Justin Thomas is my number two flusher of the last twenty three years. I got some numbers here for you, Andy, two thousand and seventeen, sixth and stroke game approach twenty eighteen, fourth, twenty nineteen, second, twenty twenty first, twenty twenty one, third, twenty twenty two eight. I was just digging around. I mean that's six years. I mean that's insane. Six years in the top eight approach early twenties. Yes, he's a kid doing this. I was doing some just some some random digging around in terms of iron play. And you talk about pitching the golf ball just last year from Justin Thomas and Andy, it's fair to say last year was a bit of a down year for JT. Outside of his win at the PGA. Would you say it was not his best season or not his most accomplished season? From fifty to seventy five yards last year, JT third on tour seventy five to one hundred yards, first on tour one hundred, one hundred and twenty five yards, first on tour one hundred and twenty five to one hundred and fifty yards, second on tour one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy five yards third on tour, So from fifty to one hundred and seventy five yards he was the best or top three in the world at that skill. And again it's a skill that has been lessened with equipment. I think flushing the golf ball isn't as necessary, but when you are great at it, you hand distance yourself from the rest of the tour. And I think JT is a guy that has been a mediocre putter or at times even a bad putter in his career, but the ball striking, the flushing, the pitching is so exemplary that he can separate himself and have great seasons even when the putting is pretty stinky. Yeah, I uh, he's unbelievable. That's why I think he's He's arguably the most fun modern player to watch, just because of all the shot making. I think, like the thing that I love the most is like the low pitches from around the greens. They hit like those like little bump spinners. And you know then obviously like all the wedge the wedge play is just the way how soft his arms are and the tempo on his wedge swing is just like absolutely gorgeous. You know. One of the things is that like sometimes like being really good at certain things takes away from other things, right, because like your swing mechanics need to be a little bit different. And I think that's the thing that's like super impressive with almost all these guys on this list is how they're able to, you know, be extraordinary at everything because they do require a little bit different techniques in different spots that I guess who your number one is? Andy? Do you do? Do you have the same guys scott'd be Tiger? Yeah, I got, I got some j Ray stuff for you. On Tiger, I was, I asked him. I said, I I'll sit back here, I said, justin. I was like, you know, you're the king of stats. You're the smartest guy in the room. We all know Tiger's number one on the list. What can you tell me that can explain to people? And then not even people that argue just to you know. I love Tiger stats. I think they're absolutely silly and they don't even seem real. There are more than seven hundred players with fifty and more rounds measured by shot Link all times, and so for Tiger is the only player to average one plus strokes gained approach per round in his career. There are fifteen instances in the last forty years where a player one on tour while leading the field and driving distance and green in regulation. Fifteen instances. Tiger has six of those, and four or in major championships ninety seven Masters, two thousand, US Opening, PGA, and O one Masters. And of the five best seasons anyone has had in strokes gained approach, Tigers had four of them since before Like what, I just don't even want to venture to guess what the numbers were in two thousand, Like that's like one of the saddest thing because we don't have these numbers for two thousands, right, O four, So since O four, O six, Tiger, OH seven, Tiger thirteen, Tiger, OH nine, Tiger and twenty sixteen, Adam Scott the only person to creep in there in Tiger's world and an O six Tiger gained two point oh seven strokes with approach per round. Only Adams Scott and Jim Furik gained half as many strokes per round as he did, and an O six Tigers average proximity to the whole from one hundred and fifty two one hundred and seventy five yards was under twenty two feet. That was nearly seven feet better than the average on the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods the best flusher in golf history. I think that is fair to say. I'm sorry to anybody out there that wants to yell jack, but Tiger was a different piecet. Yeah, he's incredible. It's uh still amazing to watch him hit a golf ball. What's your Tiger flushing moment? What's the moment that comes to your mind when you think about Tiger and flushing the golf ball. Um, you know, I rewatched the final round of the Best Page when it's pretty pretty high. Yeah, that's where I mean like some of the some of the shots he had on that backgne because that that course was so long, you know, Um, I think like that's the thing is like when you get him in the canvas is obviously I mean there's so many shots. The out of the bunker at the Canadian Open is up there. I mean, even like that Master shot in twenty nineteen is up there. Obviously recency biased, but like the that shot was extraordinary. I'll never forget the President's Cup at Royal Melbourne at an old age where he just was like, by far and away the best golfer and you just saw how like how gifted he was at hitting the golf ball. I think, like that's probably one of the things that's most impressive is through all these injuries, all these surgeries, all the things that have happened to him, he's still like what he plays, He's still one of, if not the best, at heading a golf ball on the PGA Tour. The power, I think the thing that goes under overlooked with Tigers. Everybody says, oh, he wasn't very good, he wasn't a great driver, but like when Tiger came on tour, he was unbelievable. He was everything that what Rory was like. He was that combination of accuracy and power, you know, for the first like obviously it got a little squirrely there in the middle of his career, but like he he had like a good seven eight years of like nobody can touch him off the team and nobody could touch ever touch him on approach. When when the equipment changed, you know, when when everybody kind of moved into the prov and Tiger obviously moved into the Nike version of the prov and the drivers started to you know, get longer, and graphite chafts started to get very very important for players, and Tiger eventually had a switch out of the nine seventy five D with a steel shaft. If that had never happened, would he have won two times as mini majors? Three? Like? Would he have won thirty majors? Do you think? Yeah? I mean I think like with the I think the argument with all this is like if if equipment doesn't change, like, all these guys on this list are like significantly have significantly better careers because you know, when the ball, when the ball spun more and and when it was a little bit harder to hit this, when it when the driver was less forgiving. You know, these guys they just stood out so much more um because like it is all about hitting the sweet spot, you know, like if you created a blazin Persimmons Tour. I have a hard time believing that Tiger wouldn't be the best player on the tour at at current day current day. I think I don't think it. I think it's unfair because like a lot of these guys haven't you know, it's not necessarily fair, but like because he has experienced hitting him, but like the guy just doesn't miss the center of the club face very often. Right, Andy, what was it like this year at riv you walked with him? How many days you walk with them? More than two days or was it just two days? I mean it was unbelieve he was handing it past Rory. Were you surprised by the ball striking? Like, did it surprise you to see how good it was in person? Yeah? I mean the power was what surprised me was like, how is he how is he out driving Rory's He's just incredible. So to recap, I'll go through mine real quick and then you can figure out yours. I had Tiger number one, j T two, Sergio three, Ernie four, T five, Adam Scott, VJ Singh, Chad Campbell at six, Henrik Stinson seven, Andy's favorite golfer, Paul Casey at eight, Rory McElroy at nine, and Scottie I moved my feet and flushed the golf ball like nobody's Biz Scheffler at number ten. All right, I got Tiger at one, Sergio two, Scott at three, Adam Scott at three, uh VJ at four. I feel like I might have put VJ two low. I feel like he should probably go to number two. But that's, you know, quibble. Rory five, Stenson six, Ernie seven, j T eight nine. Headecki and I'm putting my tea in a ten because I forgot to, because I have to keep the European contingent happy. I know, I know we tried that. We tried to toss a few a few international players in there. Well, this was a fun exercise. Andy. I really appreciate you taking the time. I know you're really busy. Make sure you listen to the shotgun start if you're not already listening to it. It's an excellent podcast with Brendan and Andy. Excited for Master's covered. You guys are gonna be an AUGUSTA. Um, you guys got in credentials. They let you in again. That's nice. They did, they did. They can't wait. It's uh, you know, it's a it's just an unbelievable experience. I can't wait to be back there. Andy, can I ask you before we go? Um, the first year that you guys were at the Master's, your house was like my it was I basically stayed at your house. I mean, I know I had my own place, but I was there so often. It had a beautiful little swinging bench outside. Last year's house left a bit to be desired. How are we looking this year? Were we back to back to like, uh, you know, azaleas out for ron or what I think we are? I don't know. You know, it's a crapshoot. You don't see these houses before you pick up. You know, we've I think so we did. I did a little bit more due diligence this time around, it a little bit earlier than usual to try and make sure we've got a good spot. I think we're in the neighborhood of the other other house, which should be great and hopefully should be a happy place. Okay, good. I was nervous. I think I've visited the first house twenty seven times and the second house one, so I feel like that was everybody's experience with the second house, It's like, all right, I'm not coming back here. Came over and said, hello, that's Andy Johnson. Follow him on social if you don't already, Andy, appreciate it. Thanks, Shane. Well, that was a lot of fun. I hope you guys enjoyed that. Just one more reminder about the coffee Bacon's breakfast blend with my friends at Goodwalk Coffee. Go to Goodwalk Coffee dot com, backslash Bacon and buy a bag, subscribe to it. I think you'll enjoy it, give it a try, let me know what you think, and I hope you guys have a great week. And just the last reminder is I did write a children's golf book. It's called The Golfer Zoo. I fleot to Chicago a couple of weeks ago signed five hundred copies of the book. So if you're interested in getting a mind copy, you can go to back nine Press dot com, back slash Bacon and order it from there. And if you're a pro shop that's interested in carrying copies, we've been selling fifteen twenty thirty copies to pro shops and they've been flying off the shelves. It's a good way to get this in your pro shop and to get it in front of people that have kids or grandkids that might be interested in get them a children's book about golf. So just an option for you if you're interested. Have a great week. We are so close to the Masters. I'm so excited to get to Augusta and we've got some fun podcast episodes coming up around that. Have a good week. We'll chat with you soon.